1.16.2012

We open up with week two of official Dark Ascension previews on the mothership. Given all the new Magic the Gathering cards revealed to date, this new set promises to be as good or better than the previous Innistrad set.

Before we get to the new previews out today, we should yatter about the late night preview on SVG Live in Los Angles. 1 Mono Red (winner), 1 U/W Humans (2nd place), U/W Delver (3rd place). The Top 16 decks had a stong showing of 8 U/W Delver decks. The StarCityGames.com Open Series in Los Angeles, January 14-15, 2012 had a treat - a special segment with Evan Erwin (of the Magic Show fame) giving this little treat -

Vorapede, 2Creature - Insect, Mythic RareVigilance, trampleUndying (When this creature dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.)5/4

This thing is bombastic. A 5/4 vigilant trampler for 5 mana, three of which is green forcing this into a mono-green (maybe another colour splash). It also has the new and cool undying tech which brings it back from the graveyard. All in all, just awesome but we're not sure why this is mythic and not rare.~

Big splashy mythic zombie. We're loving this set! Pushing a mono-black build with 3 colourless and 3 black mana, this legendary 5/5 critter heaps a lot of hate on an opponent with a human build. It will also push the envelope by providing a +1/+1 pump and the undying tech to your non-human horde. Remember the good white Mikey in Innistrad? This evil Mikey is a funny and flavourful necromancer's joke. It may be a titch too mana-expensive in Standard but we think it will rock out the limited and EDH / Commander fans.~

Vault of the ArchangelLand, Rare: Add 1 to your mana pool2, : Creatures you control gain deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn.

This is our first confirmed Dark Ascension land (basic / non-basic) for the set and we are really hoping for a cycle here. This one curtesy of TCGPlayer.com blew our mind - our two fav mechanics, lifelink and deathtouch on the same card similar to Basilisk Collar, Wurmcoil Engine, and Vampire Nighthawk. We can imagine a black / white token deck with this in standard - here's hoping.~

Flayer of the Hatebound, 5Creature - Devil, RareUndyingWhenever Flayer of the Hatebound or another creature enters the battlefield from your graveyard, that creature deals damage equal to its power to target creature or player.4/2

This is yet another potential bomb in limited. We're not so certain that this will ever hit the standard constructed game tables as it we think players may prefer Warstrom Surge over this for the similar effect without having to go through the flashback mech loop.

~Finally,

Start planning your Dark Ascension pre-orders while you contemplate new brews. We're looking at Sorin right now. We suggest you drop on over to MTG Mint Card who now have their Dark Ascension singles up as well as some very cool UltraPro products.